In Sweden and prominent online casino operator Kindred Group has reportedly won its appeal against an earlier determination from the nation’s Spelinspektionen regulator that it had been breaking local rules regarding online casino deposit limits.
According to a Wednesday report from Gambling Insider, the Maltese firm was penalized in December after sites run by its Spooniker Limited subsidiary were found guilty of allowing online casino players to deposit more than the $585 weekly ceiling. The source detailed that this temporary six-month threshold was introduced in June of last year as a way to help limit problem gambling during the coronavirus pandemic and was later extended by a further six months.
Different destination:
Although Sliema-headquartered Kindred Group reportedly did not dispute that Swedish punters were able to deposit in excess of $585 with domains run by Spooniker Limited, it nevertheless argued that such customers were still not permitted to wager beyond this limit over the course of a week. Consequently, the operator purportedly contended that anyone parking more than this maximum were not partaking in online casino games but rather enjoying its sportsbetting services, which are not covered by the deposit limit.
Recognized reversal:
The Administrative Court of Linkoping has now reportedly agreed with Kindred Group’s argument and voided the earlier judgement along with an injunction that had hit the iGaming firm with an around $117,140 fine for each week it operated without having closed the deposit limit loophole.
Possible petition:
Kindred Group is responsible for five iGaming sites in Sweden encompassing the Unibet, iGame, Maria Casino, Storspelare and Bingo.com brands and had reportedly been sanctioned alongside a domain run by the former AB Trav Och Galopp (ATG) horseracing monopoly. The Spelinspektionen regulator now purportedly has the ability to appeal against the decision on its strict interpretation of the deposit limit threshold although any such determination is likely to come well after the temporary check expires on June 30.
Increasing interest:
In related news and Gambling Insider used a November 12 story to report that the introduction of the temporary deposit limit did not seemingly hurt the finances of Sweden-facing iGaming firms with local behemoth Betsson Group AB having recorded a rise of 31% year-on-year in third-quarter aggregated gross gaming revenues to approximately $195.55 million. The Stockholm-listed operator’s Chief Executive Officer, Pontus Lindwall, purportedly disclosed that online casino receipts had swelled by 39% over the course of this three-month period with at least some of this attributable to the launch of the new JallaCasino.se domain.
Sweden’s state-owned Svenska Spel furthermore reportedly experienced a boost of 7% year-on-year in third-quarter iGaming revenues to about $57.38 million while even ATG, which does not offer an online casino service, managed to chalk up a comparable 18% increase to slightly beyond $161.59 million thanks to virtual wagers on its horse races.